Glossary
Core terminology in cryptography, verifiable AI, agent protocols, and AI regulation as Lemma Oracle uses them. Only definitions that map back to the product.
Cryptography Layer
The cryptographic primitives Lemma uses for proving, disclosing, and tamper-evidence: ZK proofs, symmetric encryption, hashes, and commitments.
Definition and Lemma Oracle implementation of zero-knowledge proofs — a cryptographic primitive that proves a statement true without revealing the underlying secret.
Authenticated symmetric encryption combining AES in counter mode with Galois/Counter authentication — confidentiality and integrity in a single construction.
An algebraic hash function engineered to minimize cost inside ZK circuits. Proposed by StarkWare et al. in 2019; deployed in StarkNet/Cairo, Filecoin, Aztec, and more.
A cryptographic digest of a document's byte representation. Lemma uses docHash as the primary identifier that fixes the identity of every provenance, attribute, and citation unit.
A self-describing content-addressed identifier. Combines multihash, multicodec, and multibase so the hash algorithm, encoding, and data type are embedded in the identifier itself.
A technique for revealing only chosen attributes from a document or credential — paired with a cryptographic proof — instead of releasing the whole. The bridge between privacy and compliance.
A cryptographic construction that locks in a value (commit) so it can be revealed later (reveal). Binding (cannot change after commit) plus hiding (does not leak before reveal).
Verifiable AI
The terminology that makes AI judgments, citations, and inference traces cryptographically verifiable. Lineage, citation, and audit basics.
The implementation domain for making AI judgments, inferences, and citations cryptographically verifiable. Third-party-confirmable across input provenance, model identity, and inference consistency.
A tamper-evident mechanism for tracking and verifying when, by whom, and from what inputs a data point, model, or decision was produced. The input layer of verifiable AI; a core Lemma pillar.
Cryptographic proof that a piece of data originates from a declared lineage. The technical core of any generative AI strategy that needs to prove input authenticity and output provenance without exposing the underlying data.
An industry standard for describing and signing media-content provenance. Led by Adobe, Microsoft, BBC, Intel, Sony, and others; widely adopted for AI-generated content identification and edit-trail verification.
A W3C-standardized identifier specification. An identifier whose issuer, subject, and verifier each operate independently — used for subject identification in attribute attestation and lineage chains.
A W3C-standardized format for third-party-verifiable attribute statements. Attestations flow under a three-party model of Issuer, Holder, and Verifier.
An approach that retrieves external documents at generation time and grounds the response in them. Enables freshness and proprietary knowledge without model retraining — and introduces citation authenticity as a new problem.
A cryptographic mechanism that proves a citation embedded in an AI response really came from the claimed source document, with neither tampering nor fabrication. The authenticity core of RAG.
Tamper-evident records of system execution. Essential wherever after-the-fact verification matters — AI decision logs, payment paths, data-access history.
Protocols & Agents
Protocols for autonomous agent transactions and machine-to-machine settlement: x402, Trust402, MCP, A2A, and their adjacent specs.
Transactions and settlements executed autonomously by AI agents. The new-generation payment stack (x402, MCP, A2A) is the substrate; authority and provenance verification are the core problems.
Definition of x402 and Lemma's verification layer (Trust402). An open protocol led by Coinbase that re-purposes HTTP 402 Payment Required to integrate stablecoin settlement directly into HTTP.
Lemma's reference implementation that adds verifiability to the x402 payment protocol. Proves both the settlement fact and the legitimacy (authority, purpose, scope) of the payment.
An Ethereum extension standard that lets a signature alone authorize an ERC-20 transfer (no gas paid by signer). The signer, recipient, amount, validity window, and nonce are signed under EIP-712 and submitted by a third party.
A service that brokers x402 settlement validation and execution. Submits the client's payment payload on-chain and returns settlement status to the resource server.
An open protocol that standardizes communication and coordination between AI agents. Proposed by Google in 2025; migrated to a Linux Foundation independent project in 2026.
An open protocol that gives AI models a uniform way to connect to external tools, data sources, and services. Released by Anthropic in November 2024; donated to the AAIF under the Linux Foundation in December 2025.
Regulatory & Compliance
The regulatory frameworks Lemma's proofs plug into: AI regulation (EU and Japan) and identity verification (KYC/AML).
An international regulatory regime requiring financial institutions and crypto-asset operators to verify customer identity (KYC) and interdict money-laundering and terrorism-financing pathways (AML).
Definition of EU AI Act and Lemma's compliance path. Four risk tiers, a 2025–2027 phased schedule, and automated-logging plus data-governance obligations on high-risk AI.
A soft-law set of guidelines for AI operators, jointly issued by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in April 2024.
Enacted June 2025, formally titled the "Act on the Promotion of Research, Development, and Utilization of AI-Related Technologies." Japan's first AI-related hard law.